BHS volleyball bounces back at Silverado

VICTORVILLE — The Burroughs volleyball team didn’t take long to bounce back from its first DSL loss of the season. The Burros beat Silverado in four sets 25-15, 24-26, 25-13, 25-14 on Thursday night in the first of five straight road matches.

VICTORVILLE — The Burroughs volleyball team didn’t take long to bounce back from its first DSL loss of the season. The Burros beat Silverado in four sets 25-15, 24-26, 25-13, 25-14 on Thursday night in the first of five straight road matches.

“The girls showed tonight that they want to stay in first and they want to keep winning — it was a big game.” Burros head coach Michele Lazaro said. “It’s always fun when it gets to this point in league.”

Burroughs (11-5, 7-1 DSL) beat Silverado for the second time this season by cutting down on its mistakes. The Burros committed half as many service and defensive errors as they did in their loss to Granite Hills two days earlier, and shook off that first league defeat as a result.

“You don’t know if they’re going to stay in that funk or pull out of it,” Lazaro said. “The coaches were really on top of them trying to keep them motivated and keep them up — we knew we were capable of doing so much better.”

Burroughs took the opening set by double digits, and Silverado narrowly won the second set to tie the match. In the second set, the Burros didn’t play cleanly.

“In that second set we made too many hitting errors,” Lazaro said. “We fixed it and that was the difference — the hitters being able to bounce back changed the momentum of the game.”

The Burros responded in the third and fourth sets, winning each decisively to beat Silverado. The victory keeps Burroughs all alone in first place in the DSL.

Outside hitters Michaela Metcalf and Allie Sliva both played well in the victory. Metcalf had a team-high 24 kills to go along with five aces and five digs, and made adjustments after the second set that helped Burroughs close out the match.

Sliva had 11 kills, 21 digs, passed well and had a stellar night serving. The junior had 10 aces in 27 service points, and served 97.1 percent on 35 attempts.

Setter Chantia Jennings recorded 32 assists, two aces, two kills and two blocks in the win. Jennings was part of a Burros’ front row block that stifled Silverado and featured middle blockers Megan Smith (two kills, one block) and Kristel Teuscher (four kills, two blocks), along with opposite hitter Bridget Ingle.

“They were able to stop their big hitter, she got frustrated and started hitting it out, and then they starting tipping because the block was there,” Lazaro said.